Meagen A Universe of Wishes edited by Dhonielle Clayton is A We Need Diverse Books Anthology that was released December 8, 2020.
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Essentially A Universe of Wishes is a collection of young adult fantasy short stories by some of the best names in YA and children’s writing. You’ll likely find, that like me, you came for one specific story but were blown away by the beautiful characters throughout the collection.
It’s no secret, anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I’m fully committed to the YA fantasy genre and hopefully when I’m 80 years old I will still be having this much fun traipsing through worlds far from my own.
This collection, like Fresh Ink and others before it, is comprised of short stories from a wide ranging assortment of authors. A Universe of Wishes has 15 stories from award winning and best selling authors. We Need Diverse Books gets a donation from each book sale which is amazing as well!
What is We Need Diverse Books?
We Need Diverse Books has a simple goal, to make it possible for children to live in a world where they can see themselves in the pages of the books and stories they’re reading. Seems simple enough but unfortunately it’s not a reality for most children, teens, and even adults. Through their anthologies they hope to showcase diverse authors with school friendly short stories.
A Universe of Wishes is my first introduction to their mission and I’m so happy that I came across this anthology of amazing stories.
Why did I buy this collection?
I was drawn in by my love for V.E. Schwab. Her short story, A Royal Affair is the origin story for one of my favorite literary couples, Rhy and Alucard. I had to have this book for their story alone and I wasn’t disappointed!
A Royal Affair is beautiful and heart wrenching and just like all of my favorite worlds it drags you in and under and before you know it you’d happily drown in order to stay for just a few more minutes.
Another reason I bought the collection was to find some new stories and authors that I wasn’t familiar with, more on that later!
Who contributed to A Universe of Wishes?
Some of the other amazing authors in this collection are Samira Ahmed, Jenni Balch, Libba Bray, Dhonielle Clayton (who also edited the anthology as a whole), Zoraida Cordova, Tessa Gratton, Kwame Mbalia, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tochi Onyebuchi, Mark Oshiro, Natalie C. Parker, Rebecca Roanhorse, Tara Sim, and Nic Stone.
All of these incredible story tellers contribute works that will blow you away. I’d recommend this book to any fantasy lover or YA fiend like myself, but I’d also recommend it to those who don’t normally read either of those genres. These are short stories. You can dive in and be done before you have a chance to turn your nose up at too much fantasy or a world you can’t get into.
The tricky thing is being willing to let those worlds go when you are done. My husband loves to make fun of me for my emotional reactions to everything I read.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a fantasy world or a work of contemporary fiction, I get attached! No shame here, I do it willingly and every damn time I get my heart broke I feel like Michael Scott announcing that I am ready to be hurt again two hours later!
That’s the thing about loving books as much as I do, it hurts to let them go…or you can be like me and just keep diving back into the same books when you need a little fix 😉
Is this book a good gift?
Absolutely! One of the reasons I love giving anthologies as gifts is because it allows you to give someone a book without knowing fully what they’re interested in reading.
A Universe of Wishes gives the reader 15 different stories, all roughly fantasy and YA themed too choose from. Everyone can find something in this collection that speaks to them on one level or another.
Another reason it’s so smart to give this book as a gift is the fact that some of these authors will be new to the reader. I came away from my read through with TONS of new books added to my TBR list (To Be Read)!
I’ll be starting 2021 off with so many great reads that I didn’t even know about. A Universe of Wishes exposed me to some incredible (new to me) authors and it will do the same for anyone, I’d imagine!
How do you do that amazing stamp in all of your books?
Okay so maybe you don’t think it’s “amazing” or maybe you’re a total book nerd like me and think it’s the best thing ever…in either case you can have your very own embossed stamp in your collection of books!
Mine was a gift from my best friend for Christmas a few years back. It’s been used on pretty much every book in my extensive collection. I share my books with family and friends and I do so happily…but I’m insanely possessive of my books. So this makes sure that I get them back!
This is great option and it is less than $25 for a custom embosser. You can also order seals that can be embossed and then you just stick them on the page!
If you are looking for a great gift for a book lover…you can’t beat a custom book embosser, trust me.
Looking for other great reads?
Here are some of the other books I’ve reviewed. Slowly but surely adding to this collection so be sure to check back for more!
- Meg & Jo By Virginia Kantra
- Read More Without Making Major Changes!
- Turtles All The Way Down | John Green
